Powers: “Paint It Black” review

Paint It Black is the best episode of Powers yet, but that’s not really saying much when we’ve not rated a single episode over 6/10 until this point. Well, this week yielded the most action-packed and enlightening installment yet, where it was based upon Wolfe and showed flashbacks into his past.

The visual effects are still massively hindered by the lack of budget for Powers, where flying literally looks like something out of a pantomime, and the sound effects… let’s not get started on those. Just know they’re outrageous for the most part. Despite being held back in this element, the episode did what it could. Walker managed to get some of his power back via the drug “sway”, after coming into contact with Wolfe. This resulted in him throwing him through the floor and slugging him into a cell where a drainer was looking down upon.

There’s no explanation for this situation though, we have no idea why Walker could do that and how/why “sway” enabled him to do so. Loads of people have taken this drug, so does that mean that they can access some powers by touching Wolfe? We know the drug comes from Wolfe’s brain and I guess that’s the reason why himself and Walker shared some sort of mental connection whilst scrapping.

Thinking about it, we don’t even know how Wolfe consumed Walker’s powers to begin with. No matter how he “ate” them up, Walker is adamant he can somehow retrieve them and return to his former glory days. Seeing him getting his powers back, albeit momentarily, is a nice little hint to the inevitable point in the season where he gets them back permanently.

Zora was involved in the fight to take down Wolfe, though she proved that her (visually ridiculous) powers are no match for Wolfe when he’s in top form. She’s always been extremely confident and almost fearless, so seeing her retire into this awkward state when exposed to the press and fame is intriguing.

The flashbacks in the episode teaches us that Walker and Royalle were both under Wolfe’s wing when they were younger. We saw Walker’s first interactions with Retro Girl and how he got his powers by refusing to kill Wolfe, even after he begs him. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen him struggle to end Wolfe whilst he had the chance.

6.3Good

The pasts of Walker and Wolfe are explored in the best episode of the season yet.